Jamie Barrow’s Record-Breaking £3000+ for Snow-Camp

Britain’s fastest snowboarder Jamie Barrow raises over £3000 for Snow-Camp by breaking the Guinness World Record for the Greatest Vertical distance snowboarded in 12 hours!

The previous record of 19,000m was completed in Sun Peaks, Canada. In order to break this record Barrow had to find the best location that would allow him to gain the vertical distance as quick as possible as well as having the lift open for a full 12 hours. He decided on the small resort of Wasserngrat, which is in the Gstaad region in Switzerland. The reason he chose this resort was because the slope was a total 664m vertical and the famous Tiger run (the steepest run in the region) was the perfect slope to get down as quickly as possible.

On the 14th February, broke the record in just 4 hours! He went on to do a total 11h 57 minutes with no breaks and completed an amazing 83 runs which accumulates to 55,112m vertical, that is over 6 times the height of Everest. This is also nearly 3 times the previous record. Barrow had to go as fast as possible down the slope which was challenging at times as it was one of the busiest weeks of the year and he had to put the safety of others first. Despite this, when the slopes were quieter he was still able to reach a top speed of 120kph and completed a whopping 207.5km total distance snowboarded (not including the lift).

Strict criteria had to be met for the Guinness World Record officials, which independent witnesses having to be at the top and bottom recording the times of every run. After the record it was amazing to see that Barrow kept a consistent pace throughout the duration of a record, averaging a time of 8 min 30 (including a 6 minute lift). This meant on average he was completing the 664m vertical in just 2mins30 and his fastest time of just 2minutes.

The main reason why Barrow attempted this record was to raise money for the charity Snow-Camp. Snow-Camp is a charity which helps inner city young people learn life skills through the power of snowsports. Barrow has been an ambassador for this charity for a few years and has seen first hand how it can change the young peoples lives. When he found this record he thought it would be a great opportunity to raise money for this charity. He raised a total of £3,194 which will go towards the charity’s new #Switch180 campaign – helping turn around the lives of over 30 young people by funding their places on this years summer First Tracks programme.

After smashing the record Barrow said:

“I am very happy to have completed the full 12 hours especially having no breaks. I am absolutely shattered however I did not want to complete the 12 hours thinking I could do more. I gave it everything I had despite my back injury and have even surprised myself with how many runs I did. My plan coming into this was to try and hit 3 times the height of Everest and now I have done over double that. I am very proud to have broken this record and to have raise so much money for Snow-Camp which will help out so many young people.”

Jamie’s total vertical distance snowboarded was 55,112m (over 6 times the height of Everest). The total distance traveled was 207.5km. This was completed over 83 runs with a top speed of 120kph.